Sky Sports
- Thread starter Hans Kraay
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Ok, this is long... but, if you're interested, might tell you some new stuff on that Sky-ITV Digital thing - I followed it very closely...
ITV Digital's plan was to get people to buy the Nationwide package as well as Premiership, not instead of it. That's why the package was only about 7.99 a month. It was intended to satisfy the very large number of people (like us) who watch Nationwide football and would like the coverage not to be an after-thought alongside Premiership games.
The new digital boxes carried Sky too, and with ITV's Champions League contract that meant, for a while, you could see all levels of football only on one of their boxes rather than a satellite dish.
Sky's reaction was to start digging into Murdoch's seemingly bottomless pit of dosh to give away satellite systems free, which meant the newcomers had to do the same...which cost tens of millions
And then Sky started paying commission to Dixons, Currys and the rest to only recommend satellite systems to their fairly confused customers who just wanted to see the footy..
Add to that, Murdoch's newspapers seizing on every negative viewing figures story to knock the newcomer and the terrestrial digital service was soon seen as a failure - even though those viewing figures often were no worse than Sky was getting when it first started out... (Sky, more shrewdly, kept its viewing figures from being made public for a long time)
Simultaneously, the Government was failing to meet its promises about the number of new digital terrestrial transmitters that would be up and running, which meant many people trying the new system found they couldn't get a signal...
(A couple of intriguing but unsubstantiated sub-plots too - skip this bit unless you're really keen! One rumour is that Sky put in a massive bulk order for its own set-top boxes just as the new service was launching. This swamped the manufacturers, which meant a shortage of boxes for anyone that did want the new service...
And there was, at one point - not sure what the latest is - an important court case looming in the States. A European company which makes encryption cards was to sue a firm which had allegedly cracked their codes, then published them on the internet so people could see programmes without subscribing. It was also alleged that that code-cracking firm was at least partly-owned by Murdoch's media empire. I have no idea whether this was ever proven, but it's a fact that card piracy was a huge problem for the fledgling service - tens of thousands of people who were watching, weren't paying.)
Anyway, there was now no option other than to try putting the ITV Sport Channel out via Sky's satellite, where more people would be able to access it. Surprise, surprise, Sky weren't going to do that without charging yet more money for the privilege...
At about the same time, advertising revenues were collapsing making the financial situation perilous for ITV, who were underwriting ITV Digital (Sky were protected from the worst of this by the subscriber base they'd built up over the previous ten years - that money was still coming in, whereas ITV survives solely on adverts...)
ITV digital's demise now seemed inevitable, which led to all the to-ing and fro-ing with the league about a renegotiation of the football coverage contract to a more realistic level.
The league, as they were morally entitled to, said 'nope - we want all the money'. At one point it seemed they might settle for a reduced amount just under the £100m mark - but they changed their mind, and that was that.
ITV Digital went into administration, ITV refusing to bail out the service any more having already spent more than £500m on it, and knowing they had no legal obligation to pay up the rest of the contract (which they'd told the league many times).
By refusing to meet ITV half-way, the Football League - ever so cleverly - had worked themselves into a situation where there was now no competition at all to Sky, and no prospect of there ever being any.
Sky therefore bought the Nationwide rights at a take-it-or-leave-it cut-price (way below ITV Digital's compromise offer) and were hailed, led by Murdoch's newspapers of course, as the saviours of Nationwide League football. Strange, considering they give the lower divisions far less money, show less lower league action, and spend far less on their coverage.
To just make absolutely sure there will now never be any competition for Sky's monopoly, the Government then allowed the BBC and Sky to join forces for the current Freeview system. This, of course, doesn't carry any of Sky's pay services. It does, however, carry Sky Sports News which is effectively a 24 hour advert for all the football you can see on Sky... as long as you buy a satellite dish and subscribe.
Of course, Sky's football coverage is very, very good so it's not like we really lose out as viewers (although ITV's coverage of the Nationwide was better - ironically, trying to make it Premiership quality by putting in lots of cameras and having plenty of interviews and build-up was what they got slagged off most for) .
ITV Digital's biggest mistake probably wasn't over-paying for the rights (everyone was dong that then)... it was underestimating Sky's resources, business acumen and, ultimately, downright ruthlessness in the face of its first serious competition. Credit to Sky who played it brilliantly, but it can't be good for consumers or football long term that they were allowed to work themselves into their monopoly position.
ITV Digital's plan was to get people to buy the Nationwide package as well as Premiership, not instead of it. That's why the package was only about 7.99 a month. It was intended to satisfy the very large number of people (like us) who watch Nationwide football and would like the coverage not to be an after-thought alongside Premiership games.
The new digital boxes carried Sky too, and with ITV's Champions League contract that meant, for a while, you could see all levels of football only on one of their boxes rather than a satellite dish.
Sky's reaction was to start digging into Murdoch's seemingly bottomless pit of dosh to give away satellite systems free, which meant the newcomers had to do the same...which cost tens of millions
And then Sky started paying commission to Dixons, Currys and the rest to only recommend satellite systems to their fairly confused customers who just wanted to see the footy..
Add to that, Murdoch's newspapers seizing on every negative viewing figures story to knock the newcomer and the terrestrial digital service was soon seen as a failure - even though those viewing figures often were no worse than Sky was getting when it first started out... (Sky, more shrewdly, kept its viewing figures from being made public for a long time)
Simultaneously, the Government was failing to meet its promises about the number of new digital terrestrial transmitters that would be up and running, which meant many people trying the new system found they couldn't get a signal...
(A couple of intriguing but unsubstantiated sub-plots too - skip this bit unless you're really keen! One rumour is that Sky put in a massive bulk order for its own set-top boxes just as the new service was launching. This swamped the manufacturers, which meant a shortage of boxes for anyone that did want the new service...
And there was, at one point - not sure what the latest is - an important court case looming in the States. A European company which makes encryption cards was to sue a firm which had allegedly cracked their codes, then published them on the internet so people could see programmes without subscribing. It was also alleged that that code-cracking firm was at least partly-owned by Murdoch's media empire. I have no idea whether this was ever proven, but it's a fact that card piracy was a huge problem for the fledgling service - tens of thousands of people who were watching, weren't paying.)
Anyway, there was now no option other than to try putting the ITV Sport Channel out via Sky's satellite, where more people would be able to access it. Surprise, surprise, Sky weren't going to do that without charging yet more money for the privilege...
At about the same time, advertising revenues were collapsing making the financial situation perilous for ITV, who were underwriting ITV Digital (Sky were protected from the worst of this by the subscriber base they'd built up over the previous ten years - that money was still coming in, whereas ITV survives solely on adverts...)
ITV digital's demise now seemed inevitable, which led to all the to-ing and fro-ing with the league about a renegotiation of the football coverage contract to a more realistic level.
The league, as they were morally entitled to, said 'nope - we want all the money'. At one point it seemed they might settle for a reduced amount just under the £100m mark - but they changed their mind, and that was that.
ITV Digital went into administration, ITV refusing to bail out the service any more having already spent more than £500m on it, and knowing they had no legal obligation to pay up the rest of the contract (which they'd told the league many times).
By refusing to meet ITV half-way, the Football League - ever so cleverly - had worked themselves into a situation where there was now no competition at all to Sky, and no prospect of there ever being any.
Sky therefore bought the Nationwide rights at a take-it-or-leave-it cut-price (way below ITV Digital's compromise offer) and were hailed, led by Murdoch's newspapers of course, as the saviours of Nationwide League football. Strange, considering they give the lower divisions far less money, show less lower league action, and spend far less on their coverage.
To just make absolutely sure there will now never be any competition for Sky's monopoly, the Government then allowed the BBC and Sky to join forces for the current Freeview system. This, of course, doesn't carry any of Sky's pay services. It does, however, carry Sky Sports News which is effectively a 24 hour advert for all the football you can see on Sky... as long as you buy a satellite dish and subscribe.
Of course, Sky's football coverage is very, very good so it's not like we really lose out as viewers (although ITV's coverage of the Nationwide was better - ironically, trying to make it Premiership quality by putting in lots of cameras and having plenty of interviews and build-up was what they got slagged off most for) .
ITV Digital's biggest mistake probably wasn't over-paying for the rights (everyone was dong that then)... it was underestimating Sky's resources, business acumen and, ultimately, downright ruthlessness in the face of its first serious competition. Credit to Sky who played it brilliantly, but it can't be good for consumers or football long term that they were allowed to work themselves into their monopoly position.